AFC Futsal Asian Cup Indonesia 2026: Group D top spot matters for Afghanistan, Iran

AFC – JAKARTA, It will be a battle for the purists when Afghanistan take on Iran in the AFC Futsal Asian Cup Indonesia 2026 Group D decider on Sunday.

Both have been flawless thus far, qualifying for the quarter-finals with a match to spare but something will have to give in Sunday’s highly-anticipated encounter.

“It was unbelievable for us to achieve a big 7-0 victory,” said Mortezaei. “The fans made the atmosphere for us like we were playing at home.

“We are happy to reach the next stage and this is what we deserved. Playing against Iran is always difficult but we will try to maintain our high level.”

“We drew with them in the last game (2-2 in the 2025 Islamic Solidarity Games) but here, we want to finish first in the group and, hopefully, to be able to keep a clean sheet going as well.”

Iran’s place in the knockout stage was sealed after they overcame a stubborn Saudi Arabia 2-0 on Friday with second half strikes from Amirhossein Gholami and Bagher Mohammadi.

The 13-time champions have an impeccable record of winning every group stage match since the format was introduced in the 2007 edition and head coach Vahid Shamsaee intends to add one more to the collection.

“We are happy to win and are already thinking about the next game,” said Shamsaee. “On the performance, there’s still a lot of things we can do better and we will try to achieve that in the next game.”